Mr Zaharie, 53, along with his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid, 27, has come under intense scrutiny after Malaysian authorities said flight MH370's disappearance on March 8 was due to "deliberate" action by someone on the plane.

Malaysian police have already questioned the family members of the pilots and other crew and seized a home-built flight simulator which Mr Zaharie installed in his house.

But they have not announced finding any evidence against him.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation will complete its analysis of data deleted from the flight simulator "within a day or two", its director said on Wednesday in Washington.

FBI chief James Comey did not indicate whether the results of the analysis would be made public.

Search resumes after yesterday's mission abandoned

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) says the search for debris has resumed after bad weather forced planes out of the area yesterday.

A bolstered international search team of 11 military and civilian aircraft and five ships criss-crossed the remote search site on Thursday morning but could not locate the possible debris.

One day had already been lost earlier this week because weather conditions were too dangerous, but the Bureau of Meteorology says today's conditions will favour the search.

"Wind are lightening off - up around 10 to 15 knots initially in the morning - but they'll ease off by the afternoon and be very light indeed," said duty forecaster James Ashley.

"And weather-wise there might be the odd light shower around but it looks pretty good - that should ease off as well."

Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak confirmed earlier this week that flight MH370 had crashed in the southern Indian Ocean, citing satellite-data analysis by British firm Inmarsat.

Australia is leading the search, with help from the United States, China, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.

Recovery of wreckage could unlock clues about why and how the plane had diverted so far off course in one of aviation's most puzzling mysteries.

The US has sent equipment to Perth to help locate the so-called black box that recorded the flight's data, as well as the final two hours of chatter in the cockpit.

A US Navy "towed pinger locator" will be fitted to an Australian ship in Perth in the coming days.

Time is running out to find the bright orange-coloured box, which emits a ping in water that can be picked up from a depth of just over 4km.

The batteries powering the underwater ping only last 30 days and are due to run out on April 7.

Malaysia said on Tuesday that the locator would not arrive in the search area until April 5.